Breakdown of Guru menerangkan tatabahasa mudah dalam kelas malam tadi.
Questions & Answers about Guru menerangkan tatabahasa mudah dalam kelas malam tadi.
Malay does not use articles like a/an or the at all.
- guru can mean a teacher, the teacher, or just teacher in general.
- The exact meaning is taken from context, not from a word like the.
If you really want to specify more:
- seorang guru = a (single) teacher
- guru itu = that teacher / the teacher (previously known in context)
Malay verbs do not change form for tense (no -ed, no -s, etc.).
Instead, tense and time are shown by time expressions or context.
Here:
- malam tadi = last night
Because of malam tadi, we understand menerangkan as “explained” rather than “explains” or “is explaining”.
Without any time word, Guru menerangkan tatabahasa mudah dalam kelas could mean:
- The teacher explains simple grammar in class.
- The teacher is explaining simple grammar in class.
- The teacher explained simple grammar in class.
Context decides.
menerangkan comes from the root terang (clear, bright).
Morphologically:
- meN- (verbal prefix, marks an active verb)
- terang (clear)
- -kan (suffix, often causative: to make X, or do X to something)
The t in terang drops when the meN- prefix is added:
- meN- + terang + -kan → menerangkan
So menerangkan literally means “to make something clear”, which in English is “to explain / clarify”.
In Malay, adjectives normally come after the noun, unlike English.
- tatabahasa = grammar
- mudah = easy / simple
So:
- tatabahasa mudah = easy grammar / simple grammar
Putting mudah before tatabahasa (mudah tatabahasa) would sound wrong or at least very strange to a native speaker.
tatabahasa means grammar.
Historically it comes from two parts:
- tata = order / system / rules
- bahasa = language
So tata bahasa = the system/rules of a language → grammar.
In modern Malay, you’ll very often see it written as one word: tatabahasa (especially in Malaysian usage). You may also see tata bahasa (two words) in some materials, but the meaning is the same.
Both can be used, but there is a nuance:
di = at / in / on (basic location preposition)
- di kelas = in class / in the classroom (neutral location)
dalam = in / inside (more “inside-ness”, sometimes more formal/explicit)
- dalam kelas = inside the class / within the class (still usually just “in class” in English)
In everyday speech, many people would say di kelas here.
dalam kelas is also correct and can sound slightly more formal or descriptive, but in this sentence they are effectively the same.
Yes, you can say:
- Guru menerangkan tatabahasa mudah di dalam kelas malam tadi.
di dalam literally means “in the inside of”, but in practice:
- di dalam kelas ≈ dalam kelas ≈ di kelas = in class / in the classroom.
di dalam can sound a bit more formal or emphatic (especially in writing), but in this sentence the meaning doesn’t really change.
Literally:
- malam = night
- tadi = earlier (today / just now)
So malam tadi = “the night earlier”, which we translate naturally as “last night”.
semalam also commonly means “yesterday” or specifically “last night”, depending on context. In many situations:
- malam tadi ≈ last night (slightly more precise about it being at night)
- semalam ≈ yesterday / last night (more general, can refer to the previous day as a whole)
In this sentence, malam tadi clearly points to last night.
Yes. Malay word order is flexible for time expressions. All of these are grammatical:
- Guru menerangkan tatabahasa mudah dalam kelas malam tadi.
- Malam tadi, guru menerangkan tatabahasa mudah dalam kelas.
Putting malam tadi first gives it a bit more emphasis (“Last night, the teacher explained…”), but the basic meaning is the same.
Malay usually doesn’t need a special continuous form; context can cover it.
Your original sentence:
- Guru menerangkan tatabahasa mudah dalam kelas malam tadi.
can already be understood as “was explaining” if context suggests an ongoing action.
If you really want to emphasize the ongoing/continuous aspect, you can use sedang:
- Guru sedang menerangkan tatabahasa mudah dalam kelas malam tadi.
- Literally: The teacher *was in the middle of explaining simple grammar in class last night.*
You can add itu (“that”) after the noun:
- guru itu = that teacher / the teacher (that one we know about)
Examples:
- Guru itu menerangkan tatabahasa mudah dalam kelas malam tadi.
- That teacher / the teacher explained simple grammar in class last night.
You can also specify more, e.g.:
- guru bahasa Inggeris itu = that English teacher
- guru saya = my teacher
Malay usually does not change the word form for plurals. Context or numbers show plurality.
- guru can mean teacher or teachers.
- tatabahasa is almost always uncountable (like “grammar” in English).
If you need to be explicit:
- para guru = the teachers (group of teachers; more formal)
- beberapa orang guru = several teachers
- dua orang guru = two teachers
You would not normally pluralize tatabahasa; you’d say things like:
- beberapa aspek tatabahasa = several aspects of grammar
You can, but the nuance changes slightly.
- menerangkan = to explain / clarify (focus on making something clear)
- mengajar = to teach (focus on teaching/Instruction more generally)
So:
Guru menerangkan tatabahasa mudah…
- The teacher explained simple grammar (focus on explanation).
Guru mengajar tatabahasa mudah…
- The teacher taught simple grammar (focus on teaching that content).
Both are natural, but if you want to stress the explaining/clarifying action, menerangkan is more precise.